Various Artists

Big Change: Songs for FINCA

iTunes / FINCA; 2007

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For a few years now, actress Natalie Portman has been traveling to impoverished countries to promote the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) Village Banking Campaign, a microcredit organization dedicated to providing financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets, and improve their standard of living. Now Portman has taken her activism in a slightly different direction, curating the iTunes-only charity compilation Big Change: Songs for FINCA, which features 16 old and new tracks from Beirut, Tokyo Police Club, Rogue Wave, Antony & the Johnsons, and Vetiver. Certainly everyone involved in Big Change means well, but even the best of intentions cannot compensate for what is essentially a dull collection of songs.

The fact that a song by Portman's My Blueberry Nights co-star Norah Jones-- "Broken", from the album Not Too Late-- fits so well into this tracklist should tell you a lot about the type of music Big Change emphasizes: sensitive singer-songwriter types. The result is a compilation with more lulls that excitement. Tom Brosseau's self-satisfied "Plaid Lined Jacket" is actually about a homeless guy with a new-old coat, which puts it in an unenviable lineage with Phil Collins' "Another Day in Paradise". Two tracks later, Brett Dennen's "Ain't No Reason" and Sean Hayes' electro-lite "Turnaroundturnmeon" slow the playlist's momentum to a halt, and neither Thee More Shallows' "Oh Yes, Another Mother" nor Angus and Julia Stone's "The Beast" can jumpstart it. These guys and their guitars aren't the Nick Drakes of our time-- they're the Dan Fogelbergs, which means some day we may look back on these songs and cringe. In the meantime, Big Change creates a staid atmosphere where artists like Antony & the Johnsons and Wooden Wand-- as well as Devendra Banhart and M. Ward, both of whom donate low-key exclusive tracks-- sound overly earnest and polite, stripped of their eccentricities and drained of personality. Too little too late, the electric guitar on Rogue Wave's "How We Landed" sounds like a ray of light breaking through the clouds. There are some relatively adventurous choices on Big Change-- which, at $7.99, with proceeds going toward an anti-poverty organization is still worth your money, if not your full attention-- such as the blog-pop opener "Be Good" from Tokyo Police Club, whose handclaps and fast tempo actually benefit from the oppressive strumming of the acts that follow. Curumin's fuzzed-out "Tudo Bem Malandro" provides some much-needed rhythm to Big Change, and Bjorn Yttling's new mix of the Shins' "Australia" moves James Mercer's vocal melody further to the forefront and nicely fragments the music, as if he's singing along to the noise from his neighbors' apartments. Best of all is Beirut's new "My Night with the Prostitute From Marseille", which forgoes Zach Condon's favored detuned brass band accompaniment for chintzy synths, which evoke a garish decadence that complements the lyrics, the nature of which you can guess from the song's title. This sort of musical tinkering is largely absent on the well-meaning compilation, whose earnestness is reflected in its musical conservatism.